Written by Mani Karthik from Daily SEO Blog on April 2, 2008
I thought I’d do an analysis of what I did to make my blog popular and what I did to piss off my readers the last six months.
As a matter of fact, things I did to get popular was pretty much anyones guess and is not worth the mention here, what really matters, or what would give you some value, is to let know you of things that I shouldn’t have done on my blog. Probably, you can learn a lesson or two from it as well.
- Skipped posting everyday
I managed to write posts almost everyday, but not quite completely. There were some days that I missed out because of personal reasons or because I couldn’t find anything to blog about. Hence I skipped posting, and suffered the consequences. There were dips in the traffic whenever I did not post something and this affected the average traffic volume.
This is something all bloggers should take note of. Do not skip posting daily. If you are someone who writes instantaneous, I’d prefer you keep drafts ready for future and not run of posts in between.
The whole idea is to maintain a regular pattern of blogging and create an impression in the blog readers mind. - Blogged about personal things
I shouldn’t have. But honestly, I’m not a fan of writing about personal things in your “Value blog”. But yes, I’ve to admit. Whenever there was scarcity of topics, I’d write something very lame, that doesn’t really pass any value on to the reader, just because I had to make a post that day. I should’ve pointed to some good blog reads through links may be, but that was too tiresome to aggregate it.
Blogging about personal things are OK, if you can get the reader interested in it and give him some value back.But unfortunately personal topics are not very good at that and I strongly recommend “value bloggers” to keep out of writing about personal things unless of course you have a personal blog. - Added plugins that were of no use
Damn, I have like 29 plugins active (not necessarily working) and 33 of them which I don’t use either of errors or because I don’t know how to use them. That’s not good for your server isn’t it. After all, it doesn’t look good and it’s difficult to manage all of them.
I wish I had done some good house keeping and cleaned the junk out of them but no.
I’d suggest bloggers to use minimum number of plugins and not clutter the dashboard with all of them that you don’t use. - Did not use social media to the best use
I knew it was coming. I knew it was happening. I knew I’m not the first. You know, in social media, the first guys who jump in has an edge over others.
So make it a point to take them on as and when they launch. Also, getting active on them is a god thing. I happened to just register in a few of them and leave it at that. That was not the best thing to do and I regret.
I’d suggest all social media enthusiast bloggers to really jump in and get active on them and make the best out of it (even thought you may not like it.) - Did not find new things to blog about
As a blogger you got to do a lot more reading than anyone else. First to get an idea of what’s happening around, second, to get new ideas absorbed. Now, if you pick any niche, photography or blogging for example is stale. You can easily run out of ideas to blog on any topic. It’s not something wrong with the topics as such but it’s your mental block that does not permit you to. The only way out is to keep you updated of things and open to new ideas. One mistake that I slipped into at times is not being able to keep myself updated with things and thoughts. It’s a bad situation you create yourself. So I’d suggest you keep yourself updated about news and views and never let yourself think that you are running out of ideas.





















Steven Finch | April 2nd, 2008 at 4:12 am #
Nice list Mani, im sure to take notice of these points and use them on my site, http://crenk.com
Wayne Liew | April 2nd, 2008 at 5:52 am #
Although I have a special category on my blog called “Blogging Journal” which is made for my personal stuffs with some relations to blogging, I don’t make my posts to suit into that category often as I know readers come to my blog not to read my diary. They come for what they can benefit of - information.
Thus, I have formed a simple conclusion that posting things about me will only send them away. Thought of Brian Clark with his Copyblogger blog when I am typing this.
Chris | April 2nd, 2008 at 8:24 am #
Guilty too.
A year ago, I was just posting to post some days. While my blog has a personal slant, I kept away from personal issues. Have to say, I bypass those blogs. Anything with “musings of a confused soul” or “my ramblings about life”, I hit next.
Number 4 has the most potential, certainly a way to turn things around. Keeping up on the trends on a site like this is a great start!
pangsushan | April 2nd, 2008 at 8:32 am #
These tips are pretty useful, since I’ll be starting my own blog in a few days I’m pretty sure I’ll be using them!
See you!
Pangren
Mani Karthik (Post Author) | April 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 am #
Pangushan do let us know when your new blog is up.
Thanks guys for the comments.
Louis Liem | April 2nd, 2008 at 9:45 am #
I did 3 of all 5
I’m still trying to keep up posting once every 2 days, but haven’t managed to. I think I’ll try writing few posts in 2 or 3 days and make future posts to overcome this.
Since I blog also about blog contests, I managed to keep them from being displayed on feeds and the main homepage. I know there are some bloggers don’t need the info, so I make it visible only to thos who are interested in. I think others can use this method to blog about something off-topic.
jonson roth | April 2nd, 2008 at 6:35 pm #
#6: Couldn’t bother bolding the main phrase in each item, to make your list more readable.
Bob Younce at the Writing Journey | April 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 pm #
Some pretty basic stuff here, but great advice nevertheless. I’ll make one point, though: one doesn’t have to blog daily to blog consistently. Some of the most successful bloggers have never posted more than 2-3 times a week. Sometimes, it’s better to let a day go rather than post something that isn’t up to snuff because you just don’t have the time.